Daily drugs to prevent the infection of HIV are being offered to gay men across Manchester as part of a ground-breaking national medical study.

The clinical trial, which is currently recruiting participants from the Manchester Centre for Sexual Health, is looking into the effect of a daily pill that could reduce the risk of someone becoming infected with HIV.

There are already drugs being taken the morning after people believe they may have been exposed to HIV – known as Post-Exposure Prophlaxis or PEPs.

PEPs are often mistakenly and dangerously being dubbed an HIV ‘morning after pill’, despite scientists warning of the dangers of such assumptions and the serious side-effects.

A four week course of PEP drugs may prevent a person contracting HIV if they have been exposed to it, provided it is administered within 72 hours.

Yet now these new drugs are being trialled as a method of prevention before exposure.

The method is called PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophlaxis) and involves taking a daily tablet for as long as necessary.

Gabriel Schembri, 34, principal investigator for the centre, explained: “These are preventative methods. The drugs we use in PEP and PrEP are the same drugs used to manage HIV, just used in a different way.

“Nothing cures HIV, but it’s like diabetes and high blood pressure; you can manage it. People can have a normal life expectancy because it can be managed so well now.”

The scheme goes well beyond Manchester, with participants also being recruited for the trial in Brighton, London, York, Sheffield and Birmingham. The study’s formal name is PROUD: PRe-exposure Option for reducing HIV in the UK.

He adds that condoms remain the most effective way for gay men to protect themselves, and PrEP should not be thought of as a substitute.

The PROUD study is hoping to recruit 500 volunteers. A tenth are required in Manchester and they are currently halfway to meeting their target.

Volunteers must be HIV negative and have had unprotected anal sex in the last 90 days.

They will be supported throughout the trial by a combination of various services, including counselling and safer sex advice, behavioural support, regular HIV tests and free condoms.

The HIV Prevention Team at the Medical Research Council’s Clinical Trials Unit co-ordinates the study nationally.

Mitzy Gafos, a social scientist with the HIV Prevention Team at the Medical Research Council’s Clinical Trials Unit which co-ordinates the study nationally, said: “PrEP is not a cure for HIV. PrEP is a new risk reduction strategy.

Comments

Not everything is a quick fix. This drug promises nothing except side effects and the POSSIBILITY of preventing infection. What are the long term side effects of this drug? Who has done the studies and who is manufacturing and wanting to get rich off this experiment with LGBT as guinnea pigs? Sadly we live in a quick fix society and people are happy to line the pockets of the pharmacutical companies who show little to no ethics and run the biggest money spinner in the world. I know so many people on unneccessary medication and I think rather than looking for a magic pill to cure all we should get realistic and start taking control and give considerate thought to what we should be accepting in ourown bodies. This is a con people! WAKE UP!

Under this government we have seen the slaughter of thousands of disabled and ill people in conjunction with Atos, and we have seen the murder of countless elderly citizens with the Liverpool Care Plan. Why on earth would a gay man with sense consume this uknown tablet that doesn't even count as a substitute for a condom, yet is prescribed to be taken daily with unknown side-effects. This government and their lack of regard for human life disturbs me greatly. One is reminded of Jews in a concentration camp when we look at the vulnerable sectors of society being politely exterminated. Perhaps this article would be more insightful if the mechanism by which this drug affects the body was reported, rather than telling us all to just pop them and see what happens. Remember, they bumped off the disabled first, then the elderly..... what's next I wonder..... oh yeah queers and blacks. Just wait for the skin whitening products to take off next and get digging those graves.

The pill is Truvada EXACTLY the same a HIV positive person would take. Its basically to see whether a barebacker would get HIV while counselling them to stop barebacking! If they do that anyway they don't really care about themselves anyone else or whether they get HIV.

Please stop condemning and judging other gay and bi men for their sex lives.
- Condoms can break or fail unpredictably.
- A lot of men think they are HIV negative and their partners may believes themselves to be negative too. Both may then decide to skip condoms because of this. Sometimes both are right about being HIV negative, but sometimes we can be mistaken. Evidence shows most new UK HIV infections between gay and bi men are passed on by men who have recently got HIV themselves and who don't yet know they have HIV.
These are some of the good reasons why gay and bi men should consider PreP as one way to help reduce the risk of getting HIV accidentally.
Most of us are bad at judging how much we are at risk of getting HIV. For example, one study showed that only one-in-seven gay men thought they were at risk of getting HIV, but an realistic assessment used by researchers showed that 3 out of 4 of the men were at risk of getting HIV.
Most of us wear rose-tinted glasses about the HIV risks we take.

Gay men wanting accurate information about PrEP can find this at the UK's accurate HIV information site, aidsmap.com
http://www.aidsmap.com/Who-will-PrEP-be-for/page/2770687/
A group of community organisations working on gay men's HIV prevention have published a joint statement explaining their position on pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). These charities are GMFA, the Lesbian and Gay Foundation (Manchester), NAM, NAT (National AIDS Trust), Terrence Higgins Trust, and Yorkshire MESMAC.
The group wrote the statement to raise awareness of PrEP and to provide gay and bisexual men with clear, accurate information. It covers why researchers are conducting the PROUD study of PrEP in the UK, how effective PrEP is, and under what circumstances it could be used to reduce new infections.
Community Statement: http://www.aidsmap.com/v635155252263530000/file/1186610/PrEP_Community_S...
PROUD Trial information site; you can also apply to take part via this site
http://www.proud.mrc.ac.uk/
The PROUD trail is being run by the independent Medical Research Council

Judging from the comment here pushing using this dubious drug, we can tell there are all kinds of charlatans and people with a keen financial motivation for us to take it. First the gays complete the trail and then its rolled out to every Tom, Dick and Harry regardless of sexuality. Somebody is chachinging in on this you can be sure....and it's at your expense.